264. Muqablēn | المقابلين

‘Ammān Governorate

Jāmi‘ / Masjid

JADIS no. 2314001

MEGA no 13476

Coordinates: 31°54'19.0"N 35°54'28.0"E

31.905278, 35.907778

Plan: broad rectangular with long qibla wall in the S and entrance in the N. The prayer hall was subdivided by transversal arches into two naves.

Measurements: length of southern wall 10.10 m. width of miḥrāb 1 m, depth of miḥrāb 1 m.

Building Materials: embedded in a natural cave, for supplementary building materials see below excavators report.

Construction details: constructed in a cave, corbelled transversal arches, walls and floor plastered.

Preservation: ruined, not used for prayer. It is unknown if the building is still preserved today. Probably it has been overbuilt by modern constructions.

Inscription(s): none known.

Date(s): Mamluk (MEGA), see excavator‘s report.

Excavator Report: "These four openings, roofed with large slabs of stone, helped when opened in seeing that the inside of this cave was divided by arches and cross vaults... The entrance we found in the northern trench was closed by stones of different sizes... The rock surface of the cave and its entrance in this trench area were leveled and plastered to form the floor of a mosque, but that floor had been disturbed and broken on the east side... A wall of about 10.10 m on the south side of the trench was found. It contained a plastered niche of the miḥrāb, one meter deep and one meter wide. A small part of the same plastered wall on the east side was found, and this helped to give the exact size of the room. According to the pottery rims found on the floor, it is dated to the Mamluk period (13th century AD)... The cave is divided into two equal sections by arches which were built to support the roof. These arches, according to the technique of building, date back to the Turkish period... The springers of the arches were built with rubble and mortar." (‘Amr 1973).

Bibliography: ‘Amr 1973, 73-74, pls. XLIII, 1-2; XLIV, 1.